Balsamic Brussel Sprouts with Bacon Recipe

Happy Monday, friends! Hope you all had a wonderful weekend! We had an exciting weekend of (rental) house hunting!! More to come on that later. :) But today I want to share one of my most FAVORITE side dish recipes with you -- Balsamic Brussel Sprouts and Bacon. If you're like me, brussel sprouts were a BIG FAT NO when you were a kid. My sister LOVED them, but our dog definitely got her fair share of these things from my end of the table. But as I've grown into a wiser and more experienced person through the years (Ha!), I've found that adding bacon and olive oil makes everything better. Well, maybe except Strawberry Pretzel Salad. But everything else -- YES. We now have brussel sprouts at our house at least every two weeks. Who would've guessed!?? And it's even pleasing to meat-and-potatoes picky-eater husbands! (You say bacon and they come running -- can I get an amen?) I usually make this with a "little bit of this, little bit of that" tactic, but last week I tried to nail down a recipe for you to try. I hope you enjoy!

Here are your ingredients. Pretty simple!

First preheat your oven to 400 and prepare a baking sheet with aluminum foil and nonstick spray. Chop your onion and cut up around 6 pieces of bacon into chunks. (Or more if you so desire! I use my kitchen scissors to make is easier). Cut the brussel sprouts into halves and put on your prepared baking sheet. (FYI: Kroger has a bag of brussel sprouts that I use. I don't have the size on hand, but you can really use as many sprouts as you want!) Saute the onion and bacon chunks in olive oil and balsamic vinegar until onion is slightly browned and bacon is about halfway cooked. It should look like this:

….and it will smell DELICIOUS!!!!!

Dump the whole pan, juices and all, onto the baking sheet with the sprouts. Spread everything out evenly, then drizzle with 1/4 cup olive oil and 1/8 cup balsamic vinegar (or more, if you want! They just probably won't end up as crispy), then toss to combine. Season with a teaspoon of garlic powder and salt and pepper to taste. Bake at 400 for around 35-40 minutes, until they're as crispy as you prefer! Flip every 15 minutes or so, so everything gets evenly roasted.

I typically would cook these a bit longer, because we like them VERRRRY crispy… as in, almost burnt. And maybe even kind of burnt. Okay burnt. But since most normal people probably don't prefer burnt food, I figured I'd cook them the normal way this time. ;) 

My stomach is literally growling right now.

ENJOY!!!!!!! :)